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Friday, October 27, 1972
University Daily Kansan
Paulen Burke, class of 1923, has been malignating at KU football games for ten years. He and his wife prepare their own food and enjoy it on the hill near the Campeleon before he starts the season.
Tailgates Hold Pregame Picnics
Alumni are not the only tailgate picnickers. Jerry Naris and Larry Katrley, Eudora High students, both regularly attend KU's home.
By LIND CHAPUT Kansan Staff Writer
Paulien Burke polishes off his potato salad and leans in back in his lawn chair to relax. He is in no doubt that he has only to walk 100 yards and he will be in the stadium, ready to watch another football game at home.
Burke, a KU graduate of the law school at Shawne Mission, is a part of something that has become a fall tradition in Lawrence, the city where she grew up.
The tailgate picnic began to evolve in Lawrence after the death of his brother, Ben, at the stadium in 1949. To many alumni, it is synonymous with fail and football and the chance to go along with the past with friends and family.
Burke said he and his wife had met friends regularly at the KU garden, but it had been tailgating for ten. The couple sat up a table and chairs under the trees bordering the north parking lot, so that they could watch the kids play.
"We like to plan different things more fun," Mrs Burke said. "Sometimes we have a little thing we do, and sometimes we good breaks."
Dr. Mark Dodge, class of '38 and KU Medical School class of '41, has come with his family to every Homecoming since 1946 and every home football game since 1950, according to his wife, Marjorie, who the family had tailgated picnics most of the years since then.
"Sometimes in the days before the parking lots were built we would say they were near the stadium," she said. "In those days people would just ask if they could use someone's phone and use the same one for years."
The Dodges began parking in the Outland parking lot the year it was built, she said. They picnic regularly with old friends and fraternity brothers and a sister, who is a senior at KU; Mrs. Dodde said.
Dr. Dodge said that the spirit at the games had not changed since he was in school.
"Of course, they had a poor book and tended the games," he said. "But, the fraternity made us go even though the team wasn't an easy one."
"I never missed a game," he said. "And the wonderful thing is that the same people we came to work with over 30 years ago are still coming."
Many alumni have found that talgate pinching is a good chance to spend time with their children who are now at KU.
H. E. Jones, law school class of 2014 and now from Wichita, said she has taken an online course in picnicking and coming to games when his daughter enrolled at KU.
"It's kind of a nice way for our
whole family to get together," he said.
The Joneses usually pack a sandwich beef sandwich relishes, but you can cake or pie, according to Mrs. Mackenzie, set up a table at the edge of the hill by the Campanile rather than pincking from the back of the
"This hill is so beautiful,
especially when the band marches down," she said. "It seems
that we have been there years since I was here in school."
Mrs. Jones said that unlike the most loyal KU fans, her family stayed home if the weather was bad.
Al and Judy Jaso, classes of '55 and '56, who call themselves "dyed in the wolf" Jayhawks are good examples of loyal KU
"We have only missed one game in 13 years, although our children are so young that we only bring them up for Band Day. Mrs. Jason said, "I still get scared at the band." The hand come down the hill."
"I like to support KU football because I went to school on a football scholarship, Jaso said. He's been the best team them back what they gave me."
Jaso said they often came to games with friends and picked up a bucket of fried chicken to eat.
Some people, who are not KU alumni, still have fun tailgate games on the lawn. White, Overland Park, said they came to very game and brought a ball.
"Neither of us is a KU alum," he said. "I was an Oklahoma rooter. I was a Missouri rooter and we couldn't seem to get together any other."
No one seems to know how taligate pinicicking became a tradition of the football season. Dick Wintermore, head of the Alumni Association, said he knew that tradition might have been started by people who wanted to avoid the pregame traffic.
"It got too expensive when we brought our five sons to eat at the Union," he said. "We just picnic in the car if it rains."
White said he enjoyed tailgating because it was inexpensive.
'I think that as football players began to bring people began to bring their lunches so they wouldn't get caught in the rush of eating in a restaurant.'
Many people still park in front of homes in the area adjoining the stadium. Wintermute said. "It's been a problem for years. The legality of the practice of selling parking places by private homeowners has been called into question recently and Lawrence zoning restrictions.
According to John Novotny, assistant athletic director, visiting dignitaries, the press and people who contribute to athletic
scholarships park in the lots next to the stadium.
Alumni can contribute to the Victory Club Fund, whose members are not, or the John H. Outland Park Fund, whose members park in the east and north lots. The funds were established in 1949 when the university was founded.
Novotynia提 125 people contribute to the Outland Fund. The minimum contribution is $100 and the average is $200. he said.
The average contribution of Victory Club members is 800 and the average contribution of About 125 KU alumini are member of the Victory Club, he
Novtayn told 900 people contributed money to KU for athletics scholarships. Their donations total $17,500, he said and $400,000 a year is paid in bonus revenue from athletic revenues from athletic events are used for the rest of the scholarship money, he said.
"The people who give money to the athletic department make up the bulk of donations to the University," he said.
Novtoyne said the largest contribution in the history of the University had been given for athletics. Jimmy Davis, Wichita oilman, donated $2.25 million to the university. In 1971, Novtoyne said. His will requested that the money be used for athletics.
"Philosophies can change, but athletes are a means by which an alum can always identify with a school," he said.
Kansan Staff Photos by Pris Brandsted
Although neither is a KU alum, Bill and Shirley White, Shawnee Mission, Missouri, are KU football games for years with their sons. Their oldest son, Jake, plays at the
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